Drive systems employ operational components that suffer from wear and tear resulting in fatigue and other diminished structural health aspects. An example of a structural system employing a drive system is an escalator. Escalators are a type of passenger conveyors that typically carries passengers between landings at different levels in buildings. An escalator is formed as a series of steps which is typically driven using a motorized drive system having a drive chain to interconnect a drive and driven sprocket. Wear and fatigue may lead to a failure of the drive system.
In order to avoid such a failure, inspectors and/or technicians occasionally inspect the drive system to determine if there is any structural deterioration in the system that may indicate potential system failure. The inspectors rely on many repeated inspections which include visual inspection and possibly length measurement of the drive chain. Such a visual and manual process is prone to human error because it is subjective, i.e., the measurement made by a human inspector does not produce a discrete result (yes/no) but rather is usually a subjective measurement of a component of the system. Further, even with accurate measuring tools, determining the threshold of a failing system may be a subjective inquiry.